Hanging out the Laundry

child's play on the balcony

Opening on September 9th @ 7pm, Child's Play by Robert McTavish. 

An interactive installation; a game with instructions about how to proceed down the balcony; art fun!

Vultures! and Sculptures!

Also at the Balcony for the next few weeks: Vultures!  and Sculptures!  The Turkey Vultures (papier mache and other stuff) made by yours truly, perch on the balcony railing observing life below, and probably waiting for life to stop. 

 

The Sculptures! made and installed by John Luna, as an addition to his recent lecture/performance hang outside the building in a little space made up of cedar hedging and a corrugated metal container box.  It is uncertain how long these pieces will remain in place.

John Luna: Images and Thoughts; On

"It was crazy! but it happened" --John Luna

John Luna's lecture/performance was intended to happen in the parking lot below Xchanges' balcony, but when we arrived and started to set up, we realized that a musical performance, perhaps ROMP, was underway just down the street, and was in fact so loud that we could barely hear one another speak.  Also it was insanely hot.  So, since Xchanges' gallery is closed during the month of August, we decided to move indoors where it was cool, dim and serenely pale.  

The performance was in essence a group revising of a long poem written by Mr. Luna himself, during which the artist asked us, the audience, for help in moving words around, and perhaps meaning as well (it was difficult to tell--he was so firmly in charge of his vision).  

It was a strange and interesting experience; disjointed, messy and almost unbearably intimate.  Participants left worried that perhaps they'd insulted the artist by voicing their opinions too honestly, and perhaps they had, but one can only surmise that the artist intended and expected to make himself vulnerable to the opinions and judgements of others.  Group critique situations are never a sure thing, and when a work is admittedly in progress, the delicate balance between respect and "well, this is what I think" becomes a little difficult to achieve.  I've been in rooms where an artist, struggling with her intentions and form, has been set upon by her so-called support team, like wasps on something dying.  It's not pretty.  The ego becomes inflated, and consequently deflated, very quickly.  

And so kudos to John Luna, and all the people participating, for stepping (somewhat) knowingly into that morass.  There is always so much to learn, and learning is always so much a risk. 

Upcoming at the Balcony: John Luna presents........

 “Both Balcony and Tower: A Park in Time and Grounds to Stop”

August 26th at 7:30

My proposal for the Balcony Gallery at Xchanges is to involve audience/participants in the scoring of a spoken word piece (poem) through an interactive lecture/performance.

Audience members are invited to bring folding chairs and flashlights, and may be called upon to volunteer details of their everyday lives or read passages of text aloud.

[I could do this in the parking lot, I’m thinking, and anticipate the piece lasting 30 min to an hour. The piece will also involve a visual aide or two (projectors), and possibly one sculpture.]